Media Release

27 Nov 2007

Preferred tenderer announced for the Rosehill / Camellia Recycled Water Scheme

AquaNet Sydney Pty Ltd, a joint venture between Singapore Power International Pte Ltd and Babcock & Brown, together with Veolia Water Australia were announced today as the preferred tenderer for the $100 million Rosehill / Camellia Recycled Water Scheme.

AquaNet will work in partnership with Sydney Water to provide recycled water to industrial customers. This recycled water will replace potable water.

The project will initially provide 4.3 billion litres of water each year to seven commercial and industrial customers in the Rosehill, Camellia and Smithfield area.

AquaNet and Veolia propose an expansion strategy that may enable a further 3 billion litres per year of recycled water to be supplied to future customers.

AquaNet were chosen as they showed a high level of capability – Veolia is a leading operator worldwide of reverse osmosis plants and Alinta (owned by Singapore Power International and Babcock & Brown) is a leading Australian operator of pipe networks.

Subject to the finalisation of negotiations, AquaNet will obtain a Network Licence under the Water Industry Competition Act to build, own and operate a new Recycled Water Plant at Fairfield. Sydney Water will provide effluent and act as a retailer to foundation industry customers in the Smithfield, Rosehill and Camellia area.

Sydney Water is currently finalising negotiations with foundation customers that include; Bassel Australia, Boral, James Hardie, Rosehill Gardens, Visy Paper and Marubeni Australia Power Services.

AquaNet demonstrated their expertise, capability and financial capacity to deliver a reliable recycled water scheme.

This Public Private Partnership supports the NSW Government’s objective of further private sector involvement in the water industry. In this case the private sector will invest and operate in the recycled water market.

Construction on the recycled water plant at Fairfield is expected to commence in late 2008. Recycled water should be available from early 2011.

Sydney Water currently recycles around 22 billion litres of water each year and that figure will rise to 70 billion litres a year by 2015.

The Rosehill / Camellia scheme is an important project in achieving our recycling goal and reducing the demand on drinking water supplies.

Australia’s largest industrial water recycling scheme in the Illawarra has now supplied well over five billion litres of highly treated recycled water from Wollongong Recycled Water Plant to BlueScope Steel.

The scheme is now recycling around 20 million litres per day or about 18 per cent of the Illawarra’s water supply.

In addition Australia’s largest residential recycled water scheme at Rouse Hill already provides 1.9 billion litres of recycled water per year to over 17,000 homes.

For more information on water recycling and to view the contract between Sydney Water and AquaNet when it is finalised, visit the Sydney Water website.

 

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